Metal-recovery plant upgraded for MultiServ
BATEMAN has completed a lump-sum turnkey project for MultiServ
South Africa to upgrade a plant recovering traces of stainless-steel
from furnace slag at the Columbus Stainless Steel plant in Middelburg,
RSA. MultiServ is a division of the worldwide Harsco group.
The upgrade has increased the plant throughput substantially. The
project involved installing a new primary crusher and screen, a manual
picking station, new conveyor belts throughout the plant, a new steel-separating
screen and a new primary screw classifier. A complete module for the
dewatering plant, which matched the existing dewatering plant, was
relocated from another MultiServ plant and a new hydraulic system
was provided for the grizzly's tilt mechanism. Civil construction
and structural work for the new plant included the foundation for
a large rod mill which was relocated from Scandinavia.
BATEMAN was awarded the contract because it proposed using a superior
process based on MultiServ's basic concept. The process involves screening
the slag delivered to the plant at a rate of 75 t/h through a static
grizzly stockpiling the lumps smaller than 50 mm. The larger lumps
are recycled by cleaning in the manual-picking station to remove tramp
iron and timber and then crushed to break the lumps.
Stockpiled material at a rate of 52 t/h is then rod-milled wet and
screened and steel particles larger than 6 mm are returned to the
Columbus steel plant. The smaller particles are passed on to a screw
classifier to separate the more dense particles which are ball milled.
The steel in the ball milled product is further liberated by passage
through two screw classifiers in series and also returned to the steel
plant. The less dense slag particles are dewatered using hydrocyclones,
thickeners and filter presses and the water pumped back to the wet-milling
plant.
This brownfields project in a fully operational facility involved
the challenges associated with relocating and refurbishing second-hand
equipment. It was, however, completed on schedule and the ramp-up
was achieved within an exceptionally short period of time, the plant
reaching nameplate capacity during the first run of the performance
test.
For further information, please contact: Dirk Schenk, General Manager,
Bateman Special Projects, on +27-11-899-2735 or Hennie van Rooyen,
Project Manager, on +27-11-899-2762 or email specialprojects@batemanengineering.com.
